Helping you find better dates

How To Break A Dating Drought

We can spend years wandering in the romantic boondocks, thirsting for a kiss and a quick sofa snuggle. Online dating doesn’t come easily to everyone, and it can be a little saddening to be out of luck for a while, to see your inbox degrade into a ghost town. Breaking the dating drought might require you to take another approach that gets you out of the rut.

So, let’s learn from those false starts, as we pick you up by the bootstraps to dust off your profile predicament! Consider these suggestions for getting a whole bunch of new messages flying your way:

Fill out EVERY section

It’s not fair to lump everyone into a box, with certain tastes deciding whether a hook-up’s on the cards, but online dating has to filter people to some degree. Otherwise, none of us would get anywhere with the thousands of singletons asking for our attention. The movies you like, the body type you associate with, and other aspects of your life are important details that people want to know.

The more fully fleshed out your profile is, the likelier you are to spark the interest of a fellow dater. Don’t neglect any option to specify your appearance, hobbies and personal titbits like age and sexual preferences.

Mix up your photos

Familiarity breeds contempt, as the saying goes. We wouldn’t go that far in condemning your outdated photo gallery, but sticking with the same images can point to a lack of imagination. Dating coach James Preece has encountered this before, and knows just what a fresh photograph can do for your sense of renewal.

“If things aren’t working out,” he says, “then it’s time to mix them up a little. Try a completely different online dating profile photo. If someone wasn’t interested before, they might give you a second look.” This do-over can be as simple as a new outfit, or a different background than the four walls of your home – experiment and, most of all, have fun!

Swap your timeframes around

Timing might also be to blame for your lack of attention. “People tend to log on at various times of the day,” says James. “So, if you’ve been doing so in the evening, have a go first thing in the morning instead. You’ll reach a whole new audience and could find you get a better response rate.” Many of us do have habits deciding when we sit down at a computer, so it’s worth taking this on board.

It’s easy to accept that the knocks to our confidence are irreversible. But a great drought can be expelled by that one passionate, perfect message from someone you fancy to bits. All you have to do is recognise what’s lacking, and acknowledge that you could be a hair’s breadth away from love at every turn.

Have we fired you up yet? Go on – make that profile uncontestably amazing, and your FreeAndSingle account will be the bright spot in someone’s day. Sign up to our free online dating platform if you haven’t already.

James Preece is an author, coach and regular keynote speaker on a variety of dating and relationship issues. Styled as the Dating Guru, he helps men and women work on their dating skills.